The race for the top four comes into focus this weekend in England as Arsenal confront Manchester United in a round 30 Premier League clash at the Emirates.
Alongside Chelsea who currently sit in fifth, both sides have been in fierce chase of the final Champions League ticket due to the gap between the leading trio of Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur ,although Spurs, in third, now look to have been dragged into the race following their poor form of late that has seen them manage just a point from possible nine.
The sides battled to a 2-2 draw in their first meeting in December with United needing to respond twice to come out unscathed at Old Trafford under Jose Mourinho when the Red Devils were inconsistent and looks unenterprising.
However, the feel good factor is back at United as they have been on a dream run under interim boss Ole Gunner Solskjaer and on the heels of midweek’ memorable 3-1 win at PSG which saw them upturn a 2-0 first leg home defeat,
Arsenal are the team under pressure to win this game. United faithful are looking forward to the new found form of striker Romelu Lukaku who has netted double in each of his last few appearances including the goals that set the tone for the remarkable comeback at the French capital on Wednesday.
The Belgian can count on support from Marcus Rashford who has also been instrumental to the recent inspiring run of the 20-time league champions. Despite having a depleted team,
United are still dangerous as shown in their matches against Southampton and Crystal Palace, and Arsenal fans would be hoping that their twin strike force of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette shrug off their unsatisfactory outing against Tottenham. Lacazette was appalling in his finishing touches at Wembley while Aubameyang, the league second top scorer failed to convert a last-minute penalty which would have seen them placed ahead on their guests heading to this tie.
From the coaching perspective, Norwegian Solksjaer has recorded a series of wins over London clubs since he took over in December and he would be banking on that run to shut the Gunners out.
He accounted for the exit of Unai Emery’s team with a 3-1 win in the FA Cup and followed it up with another win at Chelsea in the last round. In the league, he has taken maximum points from matches against Crystal Palace, Fulham as well as Tottenham. Emery tasted defeat against Chelsea ,another bitter rivals at the start of his Arsenal career but he avenged the defeat when the Blues’ came calling at the Emirates and it is on this ground that he pins the belief that he can be the one to dent the remarkable record being held by his counterpart.
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